This review is written having read an Early Reviewer Copy of 'The Lost Lamp' through Librarything's early reviewer programme.

The book felt like an early draft of an idea rather than a fully formed and developed story. It uses the idea of Aladdin's lamp being stolen by Jaffar and then stolen from him. The idea of a redemption arc for Jaffar to both explain his sinister character and give him the chance to resolve and move on is a good one, but he largely remains a sinister character in the background lurking for most of the story until he arrives with a door banging and lots of bluster to explain why he is so evil - but there is little direct interaction with him until that point. The style of writing is suited to late primary/early secondary age young people rather than older teens, although it also has an underlying romance. A lot of the events and characters in the story are barely fleshed out and there are a few inconsistencies - most notably one in which Jaffar threatens Mariana with a gun - previously he had a staff or a cane depending on the scene (I presumed the two words were being used interchangeably in this case).

Overall I was disappointed as I felt like it was definitely a good idea but it had been rushed to publish, rather than taking time to develop the story and characters as they deserved.

I read an ARC copy of this book through LibraryThing's early reviewer programme.
This is a romance - the story centres around Tyler and Cary. She is a music manager working for a dead-beat boss and he is a successful rock star. This is their story through hiccups and misunderstandings, hurdles and obstacles to a happy every after.
Overall, it's a nice romance, but be warned there are a lot of music, hockey and Canadian references - I didn't get them all, but I still enjoyed the book, so potential readers shouldn't let that put them off. The story is mostly told from Tyler's perspective but each chapter finishes with a shorter section from Cary's perspective. Personally I didn't love the spicy scenes and felt the rest of the book was stronger, but that is very much a personal opinion and I'm sure other people would enjoy that aspect more than I did.
Overall if Romance is your genre, this book is definitely worth giving a try.

I received an ARC ebook copy of the book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer Program. Unfortunately, I couldn't finish the book. The story begins with descriptions of the central married couple - and how perfect they and their life are - but it's flat, over embellished with adjectives and adverbs. They don't come to life despite the time given to describing. The only people they interact with are shown as less than perfect. His parents are stuck in the past believing a woman's place is in the home and her father believes a real man has to do physical labour - they felt like caricatures and they are brought into the story to argue with the main couple and vanish in a page or two. Having said that her family recur later in the book to provide a reason for them to be apart and more conflict as to why their life is better than everyone else's. "Upon reaching the hotel, he headed directly to the elevators, ascending to the third floor while scanning the room numbers, 302, 313, 319, and so on." As an example of the writing, how could he be 'ascending' in the lift 'while' scanning the room numbers - surely he'd need to be making his way down the corridor for the latter. This wasn't the only similar example - here's another :"Becks said in a semi-silenced, yet semi-raised, voice to Connor, who was lying on the bed. " The sudden entrance of Suzy into Connor's life was abrupt and his immediate fall from grace from a supposedly happily married man into a hidden duplicitous life show more was forced. The implication that Connor, who showed no signs of talking to anyone at the gym, is so well known that everyone there was willing to give up all his personal information to Suzy so that she can immediately start stalking him was far-fetched. I gave up just before 50% of the way through and would have liked to have found more positives about the writing to keep me going, but unfortunately it wasn't to be. show less

An interesting look at a future in which humans are thought to be extinct and the world is inhabited by eltecs, descendants of the first AIs created by humans. A single human is revived from a cryocrypt throwing both the past and the future into turmoil. Lazarus prompts the question of what place do humans have in this future society. His revival also triggers the question of is the history recorded in the Farchives (archives of the far-distant past) the truth of the events that caused the extinction of humans. I enjoyed this and would recommend it to others. There are spots where the pace slows, but overall it's well-written with a good pace. I received a copy of this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program.

The description of the book gave it an interesting, but shocking, premise - people signing up to join what appeared to be a reality show style event, where they live together for a while, before a vote is taken for one of them to die. This is a section of the description : 'Wealthy sadomasochists' hire a group of people to select one of them to die. Which of the 10 people will it be? Can you guess? Could you make this choice? Why would you?' Unfortunately, I didn't feel the delivery lived up to the premise. The plot was barely even outlined in terms of why the characters were brought together or why they individually or as couples would sign up for the venture. The characters were scarcely more than character sketches, some of the characters were given barely any 'screen time' for the reader to know more about them, the book had barely begun when the characters were arguing - often about senseless matters - making certain characters into antagonists with little reason and others into judgmental caricatures. The book was too short to really come to any knowledge about the characters, before a decision was made and the outcome played out - at this point it becomes a 'choose your own adventure' and the reader can pick the decedent - out of interest and to see if the reaction/ending made more sense - I tried all of the options (in decreasing order of what I felt likely) and for me they were all unsatisfactory with the final ending (after the decedent has been identified) show more cursory and dismissive. No reason for the events or explanation for the characters. Possibly because I was reading an ARC version of the book, the formatting didn't work well on the Kindle App on my phone - changing fonts and each time I changed page it went small and I had to enlarge again enough to read. A shame I didn't enjoy it but neither the style of writing nor the shallowness of the delivery of the plot/characters worked for me personally. My expectations were for something that was more of shocking/horrific exploration of why people would sign up for something like this, what would play out in the time they were together (more like Big Brother say - where the characters are together long enough to develop allegiances and grievances through actual interactions) that would give insights into the characters and would give depth to the selection, and different reactions from the remaining characters depending on who was the decedent. Some sort of explanation of the who was behind and why the situation was set up in the first place would also have made the whole thing make more sense. Just to note that in the Early Reviewers description, the author describes it as his first book in the YA genre - but this didn't feel like a YA book to me in its delivery. show less

Twisty and suspenseful, near future science fiction look at climate change and artificial intelligence. Interesting plot ideas and variety of characters with different perspectives and motivations. I did manage to work out some of the twists before their reveal. The book would have benefitted from some tighter editing in parts and the overuse of the phrase 'humid hell' became irritating as the book progressed. Overall I would recommend.

The authors used a mixture of Chinese and Russian folktales to create a vibrant world of their own, drawing on those traditions. A young Russian girl, Lucy, is living in Beijing waiting for her father's arrival. The day he is due to arrive, she waits at the train station, only for the train to arrive having been hijacked on the way and her father has been captured by the hijackers and taking to a warlord. Lucy and her best friend, Su, set off on an adventure to rescue Lucy's father needing to overcome both the 'real' world threats and deal with those that came from the folklore traditions. I enjoyed this, it's a good read, set loosely against a background of the Russian Revolution and the end of the Qing dynasty in China with the folktale traditions entwined. I received a copy of this through Librarything's early reviewer programme.

The narrator of the story is Rhett, a teen who has been getting into trouble at home and school. When he gets expelled from school, his mother sends him to stay with his Uncle Theo who lives in a remote area where Rhett has to adjust to life away from his friends, no internet and little phone or TV. He learns about his uncle and his history, he spends time out in the area he's now living. I wanted to enjoy this more than I did but I found the pacing slow and the plot predictable, it also felt repetitive without purpose. Rhett's character and dialogue (inner and with other people) is at time inconsistent with him seeming like a young teen in one moment and too mature the next. Repetition of phrases like 'and whatnot' began to feel as if it was the easy way out rather than the author having to complete the thought. The version I read could have done with a little extra editing as the word 'shutter' or 'shuttered' was used several times when it should have been 'shudder'/'shuddered' (I did check online that this wasn't a UK/US difference and it appears not). I think the story would be well-suited to readers who prefer a slower pace to the books they read with a focus on the minutia of daily life. I received a copy of this book through Librarything's Early Reviewer Program.

This was a fun read with a somewhat antisocial main character who is in trouble for crimes and misdemeanours some of which were not her own. The story also features a growing friendship leading to relationship with a female assassin. Both are strong female leads who are used to being independent, but grow as they learn to develop friendships and what they can offer/gain. The plot turns expectations upside down - good v bad, hero v villain. Some of the characters have 'superpowers' in this steampunk vibe England. It throws in a thought-provoking theme of the effects of pollution - but it's not heavy. Definitely recommend this to other people seeking a light fun tale with snarky characters. I received a copy of this title through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer Programme.

The premise for this sounded interesting and like it could be an amusing cozy mystery that I was looking forward to reading, but I stuck with it as long as I could before I gave up as it wasn't working for me. I found the principal characters superficial and shallow and the crime almost secondary to the opportunity for them to snark at each other and criticize almost everyone they came into contact with. I'm sorry that I just couldn't get on with this book. The author had clearly put effort into creating the 'intellectual' speech patterns of the students in particular and there was some interesting use of language but the overall package wasn't working for me. This might work for other readers who can get into this kind of interaction and how it slowly progresses the events. I received a copy of the book through Librarything's Early Reviewer Scheme.

An enjoyable light murder mystery set in an alternate modern day Sydney, Australia with witches, vampires, fae and gargoyles. It's part of a series and although I haven't read the earlier books, this one worked well anyway. Rhianne is asked to investigate the murder of Albert in Lord Bellmont's House, one of the local Vampire establishments. Rhianne, along with her group of friends, who include gargoyles, an incubus and a couple of friends who she isn't quite sure what they are and hasn't liked to ask too much, set about using their shared skill sets to solve the crime. I read an early reviewer copy of this book through Librarything's early reviewer program.

This review is given having read an ARC version through Librarything's early reviewer programme. An interesting concept - the idea of a village that is reliant on a young pathfinder who finds paths through to locations through mist with useful resources at the other end to help keep the village from starvation. Things I liked about the book:

• mostly strong world building in developing the village, characters within and the finding/using of the paths
• variety of well-developed characters central to the story
• principal characters grow and develop, learn from their actions and the events in the story
• generally easy reading, nice to relax with

Things I didn't like so much about the book:

• at times the story lost pace and drive to move onward
• some events in the stories such as the incident of a feud with another village was very quickly moved past - characters didn't keep any lasting feelings about the events
• the ending was very abrupt and while it is quite clearly left ready for a second book in the series, it didn't feel like this book was brought to a rounded end - it just stopped.
• there were some formatting issues, these may be specific to the ARC ebook version, but an example would be how some chapters began in all capital letters for a page or more - a continuation of the chapter headings into the body of the text.

Overall it's a good book that would have benefitted from a bit more work at the editting stage to refine and keep the pace moving steadily.

This review is written having read an ARC copy of the book through Librarything's Early Reviewers program. An interesting premise of the Earth becoming uninhabitable due to human activity (the cause was one I hadn't seen before but not a lot of time is spent on the specifics as the story focus on the future period) with humans having to find alternatives to where they can live. The story is set years in the future with groups of humans having adapted to different locations, while others have returned to the Earth. The story centres around three teens, one from each of the alternative living environments returning to 'on the land' living and struggling to fit in and make a life for themselves amidst the bureaucracy and resistance.
The story touches on being a refugee or immigrant in a new society - by virtue not of the politics or hatred in your home society, but by medical need or a search for a new horizon to take information 'home' to help your original home. My initial reaction was positive, the characters were interesting, their difficulties seemed plausible and within context realistic but as the story progressed I lost some of my initial enthusiasm - the effect of the three teens at first seemed strong and positive and within the society real and plausible but it gradually became unrealistic with all of the older generation virtually stepping aside. There were some editing issues throughout that would hopefully have been picked up before final publishing - one that show more particular grated was that for one character, Ryn, they pronouns are used in some chapters, but she is used in others - it almost felt like the character was changed from one draft of the book to another. Overall, the concept had more potential than I personally felt it delivered which was a shame as it started out well. show less

I loved this book - easy to read, I fell straight into the story (I had read the prequel [[Night of the Black Dragon]] previously, so was familiar with both the setting and the main character). The story of a young female Dragon-rider in the Tang China era when there was a female Empress in a male dominated world.

I love the main character, Jin - she was smart, resourceful, independent even when she has much to learn. Rayshan is also a great rounded character - young, learning, inquisitive while also drawing on a wealth of hereditary knowledge. There's a support cast of varied characters, from the Royal Empress, to the studious fellow student rider, to the evil machinations of the Empress's rival. A good mix and balance - the bad guy makes sense - there's a reason for him to be as he is (political interests and stereotypical viewing of other people - his gender and class views).

I shall look forward eagerly to the next in the series. *I received an Early reviewer copy of the book from Librarything.*

I had mixed feelings about this book, which I read as an Early Reviewers Copy. Things I liked:

• the portal idea for Santa travelling
• that there might be multiple 'Santas' visiting different locations
• the length of the book, ideal for sharing
• the grumpy but caring character
• it was mostly a reasonably happy ending of sorts

Things I didn't like:

• at times it was confusing and it took a while to catch up with what was happening
• the death angle involved with part of the story
• some of the language used wasn't readily accessible

Definitely more there that was positive about the story than negative, but it probably won't be one I come back to.

A resolution to the story begun in Bittersweet Breadcrumbs, this continues in the same vein of using stories within the story. I didn’t feel it was quite as good as the first but it does tie up the story nicely with a happy ending which was just what I needed for the main two characters. Spotted quite a few typos and tense shifts, hopefully they will have been picked up before the final release as I was reading an Early Reviewers Copy.

Some good ideas for an epic style of fantasy for younger teens, but would have benefitted from some tightening up in terms of editing, and finessing of ideas - too much superficial conversation for my liking, while there were lots of very detailed fight scenes that the author had clearly spent a great deal of time and thought on, the rest of the world building could have had more detail. I received an early reviewer copy of this book through Librarything's Early Reviewers.

I received an early reviewer copy of this book and the below review is based upon that version of the text. There is the potential for this to be an interesting idea, but the execution didn't hit the mark for me personally as a reader. While the author has gone into great detail about all the different characters' races, this seems to be at the expense of the plot and the pace. Characters who are only met in passing and don't add to the real progress of the main events of the story are described in great detail leaving me overwhelmed. Combining this detail with the description of the surroundings and a wealth of spirits, who were a constant presence in many different forms throughout but didn't really do anything in terms of the story itself, the main characters and the actual story are somewhat lost. The first half of the book focuses on introducing characters and settings. The main 'change' event happens about halfway through the book with a character who passes through briefly and then vanishes again until shortly before the end. The event changes the main character Ahlden, but no real exploration of the change and the 'why this' or the feelings and character development behind it is undertaken. Even the resolution of the event is left as a superficial outcome that isn't explored. I wanted to like this more than I did.

I received a copy of this in the LT Early Reviewers and so I'm really sorry to say that I had to give up on this one. It sounded promising but the execution needed further work. The pacing is slow, but that doesn't reflect positively in the world or character building. The book would benefit from some editing, both to eliminate some of the errors - punctuation, tense, pronoun switches , incorrect vocabulary, but also to sharpen up the content. Character conversations are superficial, minor characters flit in and then are gone, many of them without really adding anything but a passing tidbit of information - not even enough to facilitate real growth of knowledge in the listening principal character. The main characters mature in age, but most of their interactions remain as they were in the early stages and there is a number of occasions in which a character who has known nothing about a subject suddenly refers to previous knowledge that they've held for substantial periods. A real shame, I hope the author is able to revisit the book as there is potential in the ideas but the execution needs refining as it stands.

I received a copy of this through LT's early reviewers. I really enjoyed this. It was a quick read but also part of a series so the story isn't over at the point the book ends, in fact in many respects it's barely begun. Interesting use of short stories within the main story. I liked the way the two main characters grew their friendship over a shared love of books, if not genres. Plenty of potential for the next in the series, I shall be looking out for it.

I received a copy of this book through LT's early reviewers. I enjoyed the reworking of a fairy tale style story with Shakespeare's [Much Ado About Nothing] all set in a world of rock stars in Hollywood. Following a disagreement, the romantic pairing of Beatrice and Benedict find themselves separated by events that bear the trademarks of familiar fairy tale territory. Having said that the story has those familiar overtones, it's a new interpretation of the genre for a new adult generation. This is the fourth in a series, but I read it with no familiarity with the prior works and it is fine as a stand alone story. There were a few minor aspects that didn't work for me, mostly in terms of some of the language used - not that I was offended by it but just that personally it threw me out of the story <spoiler> use of words like 'shitiot' would be an example </spoiler> - it just felt a bit jarring in its unfamiliarity - possibly just a difference in my age demographic to the audience or language that is in use in my area. This isn't a significant enough factor that would put me off reading the author's work again, as I enjoyed the story development and the modern spin on familiar classics.

I liked the simple focus of being realistic in life - not everything is fixable, not everything is achievable that we might aspire to so by turning the focus to things we can do, can change, can aspire to that we have a reasonable chance of achieving with effort and means within our control, we can feel better about the life we are living or want to live. Not a long book, very readable and worth the time it takes if you are looking for a reason and a way to refocus your outlook. For me the only distraction was the use of the dingbat/emoticon type images in the text as I felt they weren't needed and personally I felt that distracted from the message.

This was an amusing look at what happens when a man from the future unearths a 'tomb' from the 1970s. How do archaeologists give meaning to all they uncover? It's a simple read - no more than an hour or two tops to get through it. It could have been more than it was, but the premise for it was fun.

This was a surprise in so many respects. I remember trying to read Da Vinci Code a few years ago and giving up on it, but then I found on a bookshelf that I still had both DVC and Angels and Demons, so decided to give A & D a trial. Maybe this time I went in with different expectations . Without the weight of 'this is an amazing bestseller' hanging over it, I read it and found myself curious as to how things would resolve - it's a 'leave your sense of reality at the door before attempting to read this' kind of book, and so with that in mind, it was, for me at least, an escapist romp that you knew they were going to solve all necessary problems and save the world (or the Catholic Church/Vatican to be more specific) before you reach the end despite all odds that would suggest the opposite.

Having read Angels and Demons just a few weeks ago, this book frustrated me - it was too similar to make me feel this was time well spent. While I expected something along the same lines as the first title, I didn't expect such an obvious rehash of the plot and character backgrounds. Perhaps it's the kind of book that would benefit from being read at a greater distance to its counterparts.

This is the first time I've looked at original 'Bond' and I've not been a huge fan of the movies, in the sense of I'll watch them if they're on TV but I don't bother rushing to the cinema to see them. This audio book was actually a series of short stories. Three stories are read by Tom Hiddleston and a fourth by Lucy Fleming. Tom Hiddleston seems to really enjoy himself in bringing the characters and their stories to life. I'd really like to see him get his teeth into something longer with the same enthusiasm. The fourth story is well enough read, but I didn't like it as much as Tom Hiddleston's. Providing you're not looking for the excitement and 'Hollywood glitz' of the films or a modern espionage thriller, this was perfectly enjoyable.

This was a re-read but from more than thirty years ago so I didn't really remember the story at all. It was a well written piece, I'm glad I did go back and try it again and I was surprised at some of the complexity that went into it and was engaged in the characters' welfare enough to be on the edge of my seat during certain events or gritting my teeth as my imagination kept me picturing what they'd be going through.

Found myself sinking into this book a lot quicker and with a lot more investment than I did into The Hunger Games. I found the idea of the factions fascinating and the complete isolation within society of each faction. Tris and Four were interesting seeing how they both fitted into the faction in which they were living - more so than some of the other transitioning initiates. I have to say that I saw some of the 'revelations' coming long before they were revealed, but that didn't put me off continuing to read and I've moved straight on to Insurgent.

Inital reaction to this was curiosity. I’d seen various recommendations for it, it had won various awards and was shortlisted for a Booker Prize in 2011. It’s a western, not something I’ve really read before. The story is narrated by Eli Sisters, who along with his brother Charlie is a professional killer. There is a lot of violence in the book, and plenty of gory descriptions. Eli seems to swing between wanting to give up the life of a killer and settle down to be a shopkeeper and relishing acts of violence and killing (including stamping on the skull of an already dead man until it can no longer be identified). A number of reviews that I read before embarking on this described it as humorous – it didn’t often hit my type of humor. In all, it’s not a bad book but not really to my taste.

This was a cross between an audio book and an audio dramatisation. Each of the three stories was narrated by one of the original cast members, with a second person playing a second character at certain points during the story. An interesting way of doing it that I hadn't come across before and one that I thought worked well in two of the stories. The other story didn't work as well for me, principally in terms of all the "x said dramatically" and "X said plaintively" type comments. Clearly I've dipped into too many of those writing books that say avoid adverbs like the plague! Overall though I was pleased with it and am looking forward to listening to Volume 2 shortly.